History Main / ScamReligion

* ''Series/RedDwarf'' has Silicon Heaven, which is a rare overlap of this with RobotReligion. In a rare variant, nobody actually takes Silicon Heaven[[note]]mechanoids can assure themselves an eternity of blissful rest by obediently serving humans throughout their runtime[[/note]] seriously apart from the mechanoids who have been forcibly programmed to believe it, because the fact that it's just a cheap, lazy way to try and keep mechanoids happy with slaving away to serve humanity is written in the "humans only" section of every mechanoid operating manual.

* [[Music/IronMaiden Iron Maiden]]'s song Holy Smoke has this as its main subject, sung by the perspective of no other than a very exhasperated [[UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} Jesus of Nazareth]] , it primarily alludes to the hypocritical nature of profit based religious movements.

* [[Music/IronMaiden Iron Maiden]]'s song Holy Smoke has this as its main subject, sung by the perspective of no other than a very exhasperated [[UsefulNotes/Jesus Jesus Christ]], it primarily alludes to the hypocritical nature of profit based religious movements.

* ''Literature/{{Dragonlance]]'': Interestingly done in books set after the Cataclysm, wherein the gods seemingly abandoned Krynn. A new religion called the Seekers shows up, who's priests use a combination of sleight of hand, minor arcane magic, and basic herbology to convince the populace their gods are real. While horrible, the book '''Hedrick the Theocrat''' reveals that the dark gods of Krynn are coopting this scam religion in order to rebuild their strength and conquer the world.

TruthInTelevision to some extent: there have been "religious" or "spiritual" movements throughout history that were primarily focused on [[AFoolAndHisNewMoneyAreSoonParted relieving their followers of their money]], and some people will use the concepts of religion to promote financial scams (e.g. the "affinity scam" where a person operating a non-religious scam like a FourOneNineScam or a {{Ponzi}} scheme markets it to churchgoers using religious jargon). Also compare FakeCharity, which similarly uses a seemingly worthy cause as TheTale for a con.

* One case in ''VideoGame/DigimonStoryCyberSleuthHackersMemory'' has [[PlayerCharacter Keisuke]] investigate a prosperity religion that believes buying holy water from the cult leader will cause their dragon god to give them happiness and good fortune. Said dragon god, actually a [[DragonsAreDivine Goldramon]], was also being strung along by the cult leader and merely thought he was helping people. He is ''[[PunchedAcrossTheRoom not]]'' [[TalkToTheFist happy when he finds out]].

* The Silver Wolf Order in ''Anime/BNABrandNewAnimal'' presents a shapeshifting teenage girl as the reincarnation of the Beastman god Ginrou. She's actually Michiru's school friend Nazuna, who used to be human like herself but turned into a {{Kitsune}}. At one point Nazuna makes the claim that even if she's a fake god she gives the Beastmen hope, [[spoiler: but her priest is actually using her to destroy the Beastmen's faith by exposing her as human at the height of her concert.]]

* At one point in ''Anime/DeathNote'', the greedy TV network executive Hitoshi Demegawa starts taking advantage of the growing cult following surrounding "Kira" (AKA Light Yagami) by starting his own literal cult dedicated to Kira, though it's transparently obvious that his only motive is to enrich himself through donations to the cult. This leads to [[spoiler:Light ordering his henchman Teru Mikami to cause the deaths of Demegawa and his followers during a live TV broadcast]].

* Fighting a scam religion forms the main plots of books eight and nine of ''Literature/RangersApprentice.''

* In the original Web Novel version of ''LightNovel/{{Overlord}}'', Zuranon (the cult of death that [[{{Necromancer}} Khajit]] belongs to) runs one. Jashin, the God of Death worshiped by the cult, was made up by the higher-ups of Zuranon to manipulate their followers easier. This backfires a little when Ainz shows up, as he ends up usurping control of the cult - the members who aren't aware that Jashin isn't real believe him to be Jashin incarnate, and he has the power to back it up.

* ''VideoGame/EarthBound's'' [[ChurchOfHappyology Happy Happyism]] is a prime example. The leader of the cult, Carpainter, [[spoiler:is essentially high on the presence of the Mani-Mani statue. In fact, the Mani-Mani statue, through which the BigBad Giygas works his evil will, is the source of evil in the form of false beliefs and {{Corrupt Corporate Executive}}s where ever it goes.]]

TruthInTelevision to some extent: there have been "religious" or "spiritual" movements throughout history that were primarily focused on [[AFoolAndHisNewMoneyAreSoonParted relieving their followers of their money]], and some people will use the concepts of religion to promote financial scams (e.g. the "affinity scam" where a person operating a non-religious scam like a FourOneNineScam or a {{Ponzi}} scheme markets it to churchgoers using religious jargon). Also compare FakeCharity, which similarly uses a seemingly worthy cause as the tale for a con.

* In ''Videogame/Yakuza0'', one of Majima's sidequest has him rescuing a young woman from a shady cult extorting its members for money and planning to make a harem from its women by infiltrating the cult and beating the crap out of the leader. 17 years later in ''[[VideoGame/Yakuza1 Yakuza Kiwami]]'', one of the cult leader's subordinates tries to revive the cult using the club scene with party drugs and it's Kiryu's turn to kick his ass.

[[folder:Music]]
* {{Parodied|trope}} in Music/LesLuthiers's play "El Sendero de Warren Sánchez". It includes everything ranging from false testimonies (including a single person pretending to be two different people), their motto ("Salvation is guaranteed; if you die and you're not saved, you get your money back!") to having people spend money on several phony ideas (such as their weekly lotto). Furthermore, their founder, the aforementioned Warren Sánchez, is an FBI fugitive.
[[/folder]]

* The parody religion the Church of the [=SubGenius=] (whose radio show, "The Hour of Slack" is heard on some thirteen stations nationwide) doubles as a scam religion and they're not afraid to admit it. $25 gets you eternal salvation or triple your money back.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' portrays Scientology as an elaborate means to get celebrities to endorse a religion based on pseudo-science and nonsense mythology. There was also the one-off appearance of "Blainetology", which was explicitly about illusionist and eccentric NewAgeRetroHippie type Creator/DavidBlaine trying to make himself the prophet of a new religion for the sole p[urpose of tax evasion.

* ''VideoGame/DeusExInvisibleWar'' has the order, a front for the Illuminati created for the sole purpose of unifying all religion. Aside from the leader herself, everyone thinks it's the real deal, even the leader's second-in-command.

* ''TabletopGame/TranshumanSpace'', with its memetic science, has several bizarre religions, most of which are at least partly engineered. Some of them are genuine, at least one [[UnwantedFalseFaith started as a joke that got out of hand]], and then there's things like Ecoherence, which is pretty close to being an environmentalism-themed ChurchOfHappyology, carefully designed to create "self-reinforcing cycles of dependency", and charging for brain-scans to judge how "coherent" its followers are. And the Unified Way, which was created ''[[PathOfInspiration as a weapon]]''.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Dragonlance}}'' had the Seekers, who used the void left after the gods abandoned the world in the wake of the Cataclysm to seize power by peddling false religion.
* Multiple religions in ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' are social tools of whatever Darklord is in charge of the region. The Eternal Order is one started by Azalin to scare the living populace of Darkon into obeying the undead ruling class, and the faith of Yutow ''might'' be one (its dogmas do seem to be tailor-made to help out the Darklord of Valachan, but there's no confirmation either way).
* ''TableTopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' features the Church of the Living God, a {{Cult}} run by Razmir, an incredibly powerful human wizard in GodGuise who employs mages disguised as priests to enforce his will. Note that this setting has BlackAndWhiteMagic, so Razmiran "priest" antagonists are seen using decidedly non-priestly magic. One of the first monsters in the Inner Sea Bestiary splat is an incorporeal undead created from the spirits of the followers of this cult and others who were deceived by their faith, who realize they were tricked upon reaching the afterlife and are consumed by hatred. Known as apostasy wraiths and rechristened abandoned zealots in Second Edition, they prefer to go after living members of the same faith, but suffer an ironic aversion to them that, combined with their spite and envy, makes them quite happy to attack followers of other religions as well, since they resent people who have true faith in a religion that isn't a scam.
* The Orzhov Syndicate, from the Ravnica setting of ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'', is half of this, and half of LegitimateBusinessmensSocialClub. It's a little unclear of ''how'' fake the Orzhov church is, but it's abundantly clear that everyone in that guild is there for the money and power, and not the piety.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'':
** The Church of Balor, which is attended by many Fair Folk. Every single one of the churchgoers knows that it is fake, but they join anyway because it gives them the identity as enemy of Creation, and identity matters greatly to TheFairFolk. FYI, the Church is named after the leader of the [[ApocalypseHow most devastating]] Fair Folk incursion in the recent history of Creation.
** Also the Immaculate Order: it was created from scratch as a social control tool by the Sidereal Exalted, and is still secretly controlled by them. Still, nobody knows this, the huge majority of his priests and adepts are sincere, and the teachings, while disputable and obviously biased, can't be described as merely evil or egotistical. On the other hand, the teaching most Exalted will encounter is the definite lie that Solar and Lunar exalted are all evil and must be killed on sight.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'', the Blood of Vol was started entirely as a cover for Vol's minions and to sucker the common believers into providing (indirect) material support to her minions, including the Order of the Emerald Claw, a terrorist group. It is not itself a ReligionOfEvil as most followers are perfectly normal people who are seeking an alternative to the known grey, gloomy, TheUnderworld-style afterlife of Dolurrh where all you have to look forward to is your soul slowly fading away. There are some CorruptChurch elements in that much of the dogma pre-dates Vol herself, she just manipulated things to repackage the dogma of a few scattered refugees to the mainland in a way that'd allow it to spread and her to exploit it.

** Also the Immaculate Order: it was created from scratch as a social control tool by the Sidereal Exalted, and is still secretly controlled by them. Still, nobody knows this, the huge majority of his priests and adepts are sincere, and the teachings, while disputable and obviously biased, can't be described as merely evil or egotistical.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' portrays Scientology as an elaborate means to get celebrities to endorse a religion based on pseudo-science and nonsense mythology.

* ''Anime/KazemakaseTsukikageRan'': One episode has Ran and Meow arrive at a village that's being scammed out of their money by a group of criminals who fool them with alleged "God's teachings" about leaving their material possessions. Meow falls for it, while Ran, [[FlatEarthAtheist being an atheist]], doesn't.